Thanks for posting that! Airspeed is life!
My uncle had the privilege of flying on the shuttle 5 times . . . he told me that when they entered the atmosphere and passed through the high cloud layers, they were still going 17,500 mph. The clouds shooting by outside really gave a tremendous feeling of speed, and it was the only time he could really appreciate just how fast 25 times the speed of sound felt.

I'll disagree on the basis of technicality. The shuttle never leaves the atmosphere by definition, in that the altitude that it orbits is within the Thermosphere, however, air density at that altitude is so thin that people get away with calling it 'space'. Drag still does exist here.

The shuttle doesn't attain its max speed while traveling through the atmosphere 'proper' (where aerodynamic control surfaces function) that we all think of when referring to 'aircraft'. On that basis, I don't consider the shuttle (or other 'spacecraft') to be valid on this list. Just my opinion.

When the shuttle re-enters the denser parts of the atmosphere at 17,000-18,000 mph, it isn't 'flying' yet. Thrusters are still controlling the attitude at these super high altitudes.

Hot airplanes
 

Eventually you run into a heat problem. The X-15 nearly burned part of the tail off on its mach 6.72 flight. Ceramic tiles can withstand higher temperatures than metal, and ablative surfaces do burn but carry the heat away in small chunks. If you still want to use metal, circulating a cold liquid just inside the critical areas can help.

That's true but the control surfaces start to kick in at a very high mach number, greater than ten IIRC. Unlike the X-43 (also on the list) shuttle is manned and can be hand flown, using aerodynamic controls, at hypersonic speeds.

Hoot?
.....

Nope, but one of his good friends.

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